how to free up space on macintosh hard drive

How to Secure Erase Free Space on Mac OS X El Capitan Drives via Command Line, Without Disk Utilityīack up your Mac before attempting to use these commands. To be perfectly clear, this secure erases only the free space on a drive, aimed at preventing file recovery efforts, it does not perform a secure erase of the entire hard drive as described here. This is for advanced Mac users only who are comfortable with backing up their Mac, using the command line with exact syntax, and the concepts behind permanently removing data. And yes, this works to erase free space on older versions of Mac OS X too, but since they can do the same task with Disk Utility it’s perhaps a bit less relevant to the prior releases. To achieve the same secure erase in modern versions of Mac OS X you’ll need to turn to the command line. But not everyone has an SSD drive, and thus some users may still wish to perform a secure erase of free space on their Mac hard disk. To get information about viewing and optimizing storage space on your Mac: Open Storage settings.For those wondering, these features were removed from the modern version of Disk Utility in Mac OS X because they do not work on SSD volumes, which are becoming more commonplace and nearly all Mac laptops ship with them by default now. To get information about warranty and repair services for your Mac: Open About settings. To review information about memory usage for your Mac: Open Activity Monitor. You can also check the following to learn more about your Mac: If you call Apple Support, you can assist the support technician by providing a copy of your system configuration.

Send a system report to Apple: Choose File > Send to Apple. Save a system report: Choose File > Save, then enter a name and choose a location for the report. Print a system report: Choose File > Print. The report includes most of the hardware and network information, but leaves out most of the software information. See a shorter report: Choose File > Show Less Information. The report could be a few megabytes in size. See a longer report: Choose File > Show More Information. To view, print, save, or send your report to Apple, do any of the following:

Tip: You can also press and hold the Option key, then choose Apple menu > System Information to open the system report.

How to free up space on macintosh hard drive